She Of The Forbidden Nox
by chocOlette
Summary: Kaede Yuuki -OC-  is descended from a rogue Quincy, one who betrayed his livelihood and his blood runs through her veins. She's believes she's alone until she notices a certain object that her classmate Uryuu Ishida wears.
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

"It's time for your bath." The woman informed the 4 year old that was fiddling with the cross on her necklace. Angry, the woman raised a hand and slapped the little girl's face, making her let go of the object and stagger back. She wasn't surprised. She was never surprised when it came to this: her mother hurting her for no reason at all. But it hurt and the little girl didn't like pain, so she felt she couldn't be blamed for the lump swelling in her throat. But she didn't dare let a tear drop. Not while her mother could see her. Those furious and hateful eyes... why did she look at her like that? What did she do wrong? She knew she was too young to understand unlike other kids. But she wanted to understand this. Why did her mother hate her?

The little girl climbed into the ice-cold water, shivering as the cold instantly began to numb her body. She wanted it to be warm. She wanted it to be a nice warm bath. Gradually her body became used to the cold and it felt normal. She was no longer shivering either. She waited until her mother entered the bathroom and turned to look at her offspring.

"Wet your hair." The little girl obeyed. Her mother took down a bottle of shampoo on a nearby shelf and squeezed a palm-sized amount on her hand and approached the girl, waiting for her to resurface and placed the shampoo on her head. The girl was surprised when her mother suddenly froze and again anger grew on her expression. She felt fear prickle her and a warning like an alarm kept ringing in her ears.

"Why is the water warm?" Her voice was shaking. The little girl didn't understand what her mother was saying. Warm? How was the water warm? "Did you change the water?" The little girl instantly shook her head, panicking. Would her mother believe her?

She wasn't going to believe her. Rage bubbled through the woman's blood and she grabbed the little girl's hair, pulling and screaming. "Don't lie!"

"Mumm-!"

"I'm not your mummy!" Next thing she knew, the little girl was gasping but unable to breathe. Water flooded her lungs and threatened to drown her. She kept trying to resurface but the woman's hand held her head down and she couldn't – _I'm so scared... so scared... so scared..._

The water bubbled around her violently and her body began to heat up. Was she dying? There was a moment where the strength of her mother wavered, and a faint, "what?" was heard before the room exploded.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

My eyes stared dully at the desk as I waited for my remaining classmates to arrive at homeroom. I wasn't the only one as there were 11 others inside with me. I only knew the names of 8: Orihime Inoue, Tatsuki Arisawa, Michiru Ogawa, Mahana Natsui, Keigo Asano, Mizuiro Kojima, Yasutora Sado and Uryuu Ishida. I looked at each character as I mentally named them, my gaze finally falling and lingering on the final one. Or more rather the odd bracelet he wore on his wrist with a cross dangling from it. I recognised it all too well. I had the same one, but in the form of a necklace. It hung on a long chain that rested on the centre of my chest, hidden from view. That cross belonged to the Quincy, a clan that was thought to be extinct in the spirit world. I was proud to have had already proved that so-called fact wrong as I was one. However my blood was slightly different compared to those of regular Quincy.

Like Shinigami, the Quincy could obtain the powers of Hollows. There was a big difference however to what powers they gained. While Shinigami obtained greater power and speed, the Quincy obtained the secrets and spells such as "cero" from Hollows. They created special incantations - like kidou – to summon and control those powers.

Though Shinigami gained their power individually, some Quincy had no choice as that power remained in their genes: long ago a group of Quincy, those who wanted power more than justice, went against their livelihood and decided to gain the power of Hollows. The procedure entailed creating an arrow formed from Hollow spirit particles and striking themselves in the heart with it – they were reborn as a new race, labelled as the Nox. The Nox's reiatsu smelt of a mixture Quincy and Hollow – to the Quincy, a disgusting aroma. The Nox were an embarrassment to the Quincy race and so the majority were exterminated. My ancestors survived by going into hiding.

I still counted myself as a Quincy as I disliked the idea of separating myself from my own race. Which is why I wondered as I looked at the dark-haired boy: could it be that I wasn't the _only_ one?

The male, aware of being watched, turned calmly to his right where I sat 2 seats away from him bearing an almost unfathomable expression. He was either annoyed or wondering why I was paying so much attention to his existence. Noticing my delayed reaction, I quickly averted my gaze to the door as my face was becoming crimson with embarrassment at having been noticed twice today: once when we were entering Karakura High School and the second: now. I couldn't help staring when I was so curious and that, I knew, wasn't good. But again, I couldn't help it.

The remaining students arrived and settled in their seats. The elderly substitute teacher pulled out the register and began to read after having explained that their homeroom teacher wasn't well enough to teach today. A mild humoured thought entered my head as I thought of my teacher on a cruise ship sunbathing her troubles away. This class had never caused enough hassle for her to begin stressing, so maybe she really was sick.

"Yasutora Sado?"

"Yes sir," responded the muscular Mexican boy sitting two rows behind me. Next was my name.

"K-Kade Yuuki?" Mahana who was a good friend of mine snickered lightly at the wrong pronunciation, leaving her to be glared at me.

"It's Kaede sir. Kai-deh," I quickly corrected.

"My apologies, Kade Yuuki."

"Sir-" I began to correct him again but he already shut the register and dug his nose into a different book, to wait for the bell signalling for students to go to their first lesson. I was left embarrassed by his mistake. This always happened – whenever I gave the proper pronunciation they didn't listen. Its Kaede not Kade, I pressured in my head whilst wearing an irritated expression. That emotion faded though when I heard my name being called and thankfully it was said properly.

"Hello Kaede!" I twisted in my seat to face the redhead behind me, meeting her kind grey eyes with my amber ones. Orihime had perfect, long, silky hair - I would've killed for hair like hers, for mine was a wavy but messy-looking brown that reached just below my shoulders. No matter what I did with it – brush it, straighten it – it would not learn and remained in its original form like it had a mind of its own. Although I admit it was soft and knotless, it would still look like a jungle was growing from my head. Orihime always said she liked it as it "made me look wild" in a positive sense. I always laughed and thanked her but never fully appreciated the compliment – it sounded insincere to my ears.

"Hey Orihime, what's up? I see Chizuru hasn't bothered you yet..." I glanced at the auburn haired girl sitting on the opposite side of the classroom. Chizuru's expression was one of longing as she stared at Orihime. Desperate longing... I cringed at her expression and turned to look back at my friend.

"She doesn't bother me..." replied Orihime, trying to be kind about her stalker. As always, she could never say a bad word about a person. "She came late today so we didn't get a chance to talk yet." I nodded, though I knew that she was putting it kindly. Chizuru committed perverted acts against the poor girl, always grabbing her tightly from behind and squeezing her bust uncomfortably. Tatsuki would always jump to Orihime's defence by flying Chizuru into a wall, thankfully.

A strange smile formed on the lips of the redhead, a smile that I couldn't read. My confused expression seemed to have urged her to explain. Orihime leaned in closely and I did too, assuming that whatever it was it must be a secret.

"Kaede, I noticed that you've been watching Ishida-kun for some time now," she whispered so her words wouldn't reach the boy's ears. It took seconds for me to comprehend what she was saying but when she did her reaction was more than excusable she thought. Her face flushed red from the thought of her even having feelings for Ishida. Had she really been staring that much at him that people were beginning to think such things?

"What are you talking about Orihime? There's nothing going on! I barely even acknowledge him let alone like him!" Kaede's panicked reaction attracted the attention of some classmates. She forced herself to calm down and instead smiled at her and asked, "What makes you think I like him?"

"Well... you've also joined the Handicrafts Club."

"I joined it... because... of you..." Kaede drew out as she wondered whether she'd believe the lie. She watched the redhead until she was sure that she did. With another smile she turned back to the front. Kaede thought about Orihime's thoughts and wondered, was it really how it looked like? Like she was attracted to him? She admitted she wouldn't mind if it were not for his cold personality and anti-social behaviour. But she still would've reacted the same if someone told her what Orihime did. Kaede always considered that such things were silly and so she was never comfortable when talking about them. She never understood things like love and feelings. She didn't understand hers and didn't understand others' like Orihime's love for Ichigo Kurosaki and Chizuru's love for Orihime. Realizing the direction of her thoughts the girl stopped, becoming red once more. She probably looked odd to the people around her, even if they had been in the same class for a year now.

Finally the bell decided to ring and the students hurriedly dismissed themselves from the class. Kaede watched as each person disappeared through the door until she was the only one left. Slowly and silently the girl rose from her seat, picking up her bag and headed to her lesson.


End file.
